Flowers in September Ditches

     In my travels in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania early in September of this year, I studied the plants in four roadside ditches, which are tiny wetlands.  Those roadside low spots were the same in that they were dominated by vegetation that flourishes best in wet or, at least, moist ground.  Yet each ditch I visited had a different community of plants, including a nice variety of lovely blooms.  All those wetland plants in roadside low spots provide shelter for a variety of wildlife and the beautiful blossoms supply nectar to a variety of insects.
      Spotted jewelweeds with their one-inch-long, orange, cornocopia-shaped blossoms dominated every roadside ditch I visited.  Jewelweeds grow up to five feet tall and are bushy.  Several of them standing together create thickets of themselves that shelter wildlife.  The less common pale jewelweeds with their pale-yellow blooms are virtually the same as spotted jewelweeds, but seem better able to tolerate shade than their orange-flowered cousins.  A variety of bees and migrating rubythroated hummingbirds sip nectar from jewelweed blooms.
     A kind of smartweed with pink, closed blooms was common in three little, roadside gullies I visited.  The tiny, black seeds in those little flowers, wherever they grow, are eaten by ducks and small birds in winter.
     Joe-pye weeds bloom in August when their many small, dusty-pink flowers are visited by a variety of butterflies to sip nectar.  Joe-pyes stand eight to ten feet tall and so are an impressive plant even when done blooming, including in two roadside ditches I studied.
     Boneset with its many tiny, white blooms was common in two low spots by the side of roads.  This wetland plant offers contrast to the many brightly-colored flowers of its vegetable neighbors.
     Asiatic dayflowers are originally from Asia, as their name implies.  This plant species does best in damp soil and partial shade, as do the other plants listed here.  And its two, bright-blue petals and yellow stamens, per blossom, are striking to see.    
     I saw a few of the lovely and related cardinal flowers with red flowers and great lobelias with blue blooms in a couple of ditches along country roads.  I also noted a few ironweed plants in one ditch and several purple loosestrifes in another.  Ironweed and loosestrife both have beautiful, hot-pink blossoms that are readily visited by a variety of butterflies that sip their nectar. 
     Goldenrods are not wetland plants, but they were abundant in two of the roadside ditches I saw this September.  Goldenrods' multitudes of tiny, cheery flowers are visited by bees and other small insects to get nectar. 
     Three of the country road wet spots I visited had cattails growing in them and the fourth one hosted phragmites.  Cattails and phragmites both have decorative seed heads.  Cattails get up to five feet tall while phragmites can reach ten feet.  Red-winged blackbirds nest on the stalks of these two wetland plants wherever they sprout and grow.  Muskrats use the stems of these plants to make homes in ponds and roadside puddles.
     Several kinds of wetland trees shade roadside ditches, including red maples in three of them I visited.  Black walnut, black gum and crack willow trees were in two low spots along roads and pin oaks were in one.  These trees, wherever they occur, help hold down the soil, shade plants beneath them, and offer food and shelter to a variety of wildlife.  And the red maples and black gums both had some striking, red leaves when I saw them in September.
     Alder bushes were in two roadside ditches and gray-stem dogwoods were in one.  These shrubs, wherever they sprout, also provide food and shelter for wildlife.  The dogwoods, for example, already had many dull-blue berries on them, fruits that will be eaten by rodents and small birds through the coming winter.
     When I visited these roadside wetlands in September, I noticed a few common kinds of small birds, including northern cardinals, song sparrows and gray catbirds in all of them.  These birds like thickets with ample water, invertebrates and berries. 
     And these little wetlands also had many bees of various kinds, and several cabbage white, silver-spotted skipper and least skipper butterflies in them.  All those common insects visited the colorful blooms of the wetlands to sip nectar.
     The above-mentioned flowers together make unique, human-made plant communities that add beauty to the landscape and the already lovely September.  They are there for our looking, free.